Poll: 5 Percent of Democrats Say FBI Announcement Makes them Less Likely to Vote for Clinton

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images31 Oct 2016Washington, DC

Five percent of Democrats say the news that the FBI renewed its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server makes them less likely to vote for the secretary of state, according to a CBS News poll.

The survey questioned voters in 13 battleground states and found “a sizeable third of Democrats” say the FBI news is bad.

There’s a suggestion the new email issue could limit Clinton’s chances of growing beyond the base that already supports her. Only 5 percent of Democrats say it could make them less likely to vote for Clinton, and among voters overall, 71 percent say it either won’t change their thinking, or in some cases, they’re already voted.

Most of those who say they’re less likely to vote for Clinton are Republicans, who are not supporting her anyway. Just 5 percent say it all depends on what is in the emails, a wait-and-see approach. Overall, 52 percent of battleground voters expect the emails to contain “more of what we already know” and 48 percent – the largest group of which are Republicans – expect things that are additionally damaging to Clinton.

The poll also found that many of Clinton’s supporters don’t believe she is honest.

“Many of Clinton’s own voters also don’t describe her as honest – one-third do not in Colorado, nearly one-third do not in North Carolina – and fewer than half of voters overall in North Carolina feel she would act with integrity as President,” reports CBS News.

The CBS News 2016 Battleground Tracker interviews more than 4,000 registered voters in 13 battleground states. The most recent survey questioned registered voters in Arizona, North Carolina, Colorado and Pennsylvania on Oct. 26 to Oct. 28.

On Oct. 28 to 29, voters in all 13 battleground states were asked about the FBI announcement. According to the results, eight in ten voters said they had heard about the FBI’s decision by Saturday.

“The margin of error for the full battleground survey is +/- 1.9 percent; for Arizona ±4.3 percent for North Carolina ±4.1 percent, for Colorado ±4.1 percent, for Pennsylvania ±3.7 percent,” notes CBS News.